ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
THE PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS
(Family Glareolida)
There has been brought together within the confines of this family, under the name of Pratincoles and Coursers, a number of peculiar Old World birds concerning the systematic position of which there have been some decided differences of opinion, and even now not all of the questions can be regarded as definitely settled.
In any event, the birds here included agree among themselves in wanting the basipterygoid processes at the base of the skull, a character which serves to separate them from all the other members of the order.
With the exception of the Black-backed Courser (Pluvianus), if this is to be included here, all agree in having slit-like (schizorhinal) nostrils and the split (schizognathous) form of the palate, while the tarsus is transversely scaled in front.
They are separated into two well-marked groups or subfamilies, to the first of which (the Glareolince) belong the Pratincoles, of which there are ten species, placed under three genera or by some under a single genus.
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